Penguin Classics

Rawsthorn, A. (2006, October 18). How Penguin Classics Books Became an Icon. Retrieved December 15, 2015

Penguin Classics books have come a long way. The books were originally extremely cheap and its founder, Allen Lane, was determined to increase their worth by designing audience-grabbing covers. The designers of Penguin Classics were lucky, the ‘trend’ of 1940s England was simplicity and plain lettering, which was really all they could afford. Lane originally went to the zoo and hand-sketched the Penguin logo, a very cost-effective method of design.

Jan Tschichold was one of the greatest Penguin Classics designers who invented the classic Penguin cover in 1946. Hired by Lane as a typography designer, he personally designed over 500 Penguin covers.



By the early 1960s, the old penguin design had become tired and Germano Facetti was hired to innovate. He took advantage of the rising technologies in print, producing much more sophisticated covers and changing the 'crime' genre's typical green cover to black.



After a dip in popularity in the 80s and 90s, art director, Jim Stoddart, and a junior designer, David Pearson, brought sales shooting up again with their design for Great Ideas.



"I have never been able to understand why cheap books should not also be well designed, for good design is no more expensive than bad."
“Whenever the printers complained, he'd exaggerate his German accent and pretend not to understand them.”
“-orange for fiction, green for crime and blue for biography- “

Penguin has a knack for bringing old, classic books into a new light with freshly-designed covers as well as a lucky streak as they ride along with the market. They take advantage of the trends and are constantly innovating and progressing to impress and grab readers.

Book Design History

In the early 1800s, book covers were solely for protection and preservation. Usually, paper or calf hide were attached to or around the manuscripts. It was not until the 1820s that publishers began using the book jackets to attract buyers. The earliest known 'dust jacket was published in 1832.

The Bolted Book, the first attempt at industrializing books and typographic covers, was created in 1927 by Fortunato Deperno. There were advertisements and poems in the book, creating a mis-matched and disorganized composition. Deperno’s idea was to create a book like a machine

and make it look like it could fall apart at any second.

The Medium is the Massage by Quentin Fiore was another ground-breaking book. It did not follow the standard number of words per page and the layout of the cover was not inspired by its manuscript but was initiated by a designer. (1968)

The Telephone Book by Richard Eckersley featured complex and unique patterns of layout and spacing unlike other novels of the time. Its text was composed to look like a design itself--uneven spacing, different typefaces, and inconsistent styles of writing.

“The linearity of the average book wouldn’t work.”

“Each page was a performance-”

It is important to learn the history and milestones of book design so as to understand the complete evolution of print. The change in production and appearance allows insight into where book covers and design will go.

In E-Book Era, You Can’t Even Judge a Cover

Rich, M. (2010, March 30). In E-Book Era, You Can’t Even Judge a Cover. Retrieved December 4, 2014.

eReaders take away a large part of the marketing of books. With a traditional paperback, one could take interest in another’s book by its cover, making for another eager customer; however, a book’s cover cannot be seen on an iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc. Publishers are hoping that people will ‘share’ their current readings on Facebook/social media, rather than having people take an interest from the opposite seat on a train. They are also hoping for a website, app, etc. to be created specifically so one may share one’s latest reads and finds. Books to be sold digitally must have their covers altered so as to ‘fit’ the format of Amazon or other eBook websites; the font of the author’s name, for example, must be enlarged so it is legible from a much-smaller screen.

There are upsides to a digitally-shifting world of reading, however. Heather E. Johnson asserts that privacy as well as a buffer from questions are two factors some people prefer. But Bindu Wiles disagrees, finding a sense of pride in her literary taste.

“You can’t tell a book by its cover if it doesn’t have one.”

“Perhaps no other element of the book-making process receives as much input from as many different people as the jacket.”

“Some digital publishers suspect that one of the reasons romance and erotica titles are so popular in electronic editions is because e-readers are discreet.”

This article is accessible, an interesting read. Two sides to this ‘issue’ were defined and personal anecdotes and comical add-ons were refreshing and engaging. The idea that not only reading but conversation and engaging with another person should be completely digitalized worries me. I understand that the market place is shifting, but solely relying on a New App to be released instead of just asking a friend for book suggestions or a stranger on the train what book their immersed in is disturbing.